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Learn to ride

July 28, 2018

Step 1. Learn using a boat or ski

Learning how to ride a foil board is easy to do if you have the right tools and resources. We suggest starting behind a boat or Jetski.

This is the quickest way to build your skills and help master the feel of transitioning the foil into flight. This will also help you gain the skill set that will help you control the pitch & roll of the foil.

To water start behind a boat or personal watercraft, you will need to learn how to get up behind a boat. This can be taught either with a wakeboard, surfboard or foil board all water start the same when towing behind a boat.

When you’re behind the boat holding onto the rope waiting for your "pull," your board will need to be perpendicular to the boat. This perpendicular position gives your board a larger planing surface allowing you to come up out of the water at a slower speed.

As the boat pulls you out of the water, let your body roll up over your feet and then stand up. The key here is that the boat is doing all of the work.

Step 2. Get the right stance and weight distribution

Once you are up and out of the water it's important to remember that you’re now “effectively” standing on top of an airplane. You want to keep your feet evenly weighted until you're comfortable engaging the foil into flight.

Keep the board on water by maintaining even pressure between your feet. When you are ready to transition into flight, slowly shift some of the weight from your front foot to your back foot. This will engage the foil into flight.

Step 3. Touch and go

Once the foil starts to fly, quickly apply pressure to your front foot. Weight on the front foot will force the foil back down. When transitioning into flight, it is essential to keep your weight centered evenly over the board. Failure to do so will result in unbalanced flight and or a crash.

Start with the boat or ski pulling you at 8-10 miles and hour, practice doing touch-and-goes. Slightly shift pressure to your back foot to engage the foil into flight.

Once you feel the foil starting to fly, shift some weight to your front foot to bring the board back down. It is important to shift your weight slowly and steadily. This is not a rapid movement.

Step 4. Add speed and turns

Once you have mastered this stage then slowly add more speed and repeat the process to get comfortable foiling at slightly higher speeds.This will enable you to maintain smooth flight at a constant height above the water.

Once you are confident with maintaining steady flight it’s time to start working on your turning.

Turns can be initiated with a slight side to side twisting of the upper body. Looking where you want to go and your body will follow with the direction your head is pointed.

When turning be sure to remember a foil has a lot less friction in the water then the board does so be careful not to get ahead of the ski rope.

Once you master your turns, you can apply what you have learned by whipping off of the ski rope. The easiest method is to whip across the wake accelerating to the outside of a turn and letting go of the rope at the apex of the turn.

Once you are flying on the foil without the power or stability of the rope you can work on your controlled turns. You will notice that the lift generated by the foil will change as the speed changes.

Step 6. Get ready to surf waves

Tow into small waves and apply the skills from the other steps to ride a gentle rolling wave that is far away from another other surfers, swimmers or other craft.

1 Response

Ron Rosenberg

November 15, 2019

I followed Chuck’s easy instructions above, and I was foiling easily and comfortably within 30 minutes. I love my new FoilScience board and foil package. THANK YOU!
Ron